Introduction

Barcelona is known for its urban planning, and among it, the most commonly appreciated design feature is the Barcelona blocks, mostly in Eixample designed by Ildefons Cerda. Over the past two centuries, they have evolved and changed drastically, so much that they have lost the identity that they were designed for. Well into the 20th century, the construction and densification of the Eixample continued until, at the end of the Franco era, it reached 290,000 m3 of buildings per block, when Cerdà had planned about 67,000, and there was an almost total lack of green zones and spaces for public use.

Problem

The lack of public spaces and over densification of Eixample led to project by ProEixample, intending to repurpose the courtyards with gardens and communal spaces by expropriation. The municipality was able to convert some parts of over seventy blocks into gardens of different sizes, trees, and uses. This plan of expropriation turned out to be an expensive affair and the municipality had to put a halt to the initiative.

Idea 

In order to empower communities in these blocks, we intend to match these underutilized patios in the courtyard with the required services for the people residing in the block. The idea here is that the people can list down the services or activities that can be hosted in these patios, and the owners of these patios can then rent them in exchange for benefits. Doing this through the use of blockchain will create a common platform and help to keep the process decentralized and transparent. People will be able to interact and share their ideas for space with each other on the platform.

Blockchain

The main proposition behind using blockchain is for making local, transparent, participatory decisions and equal say for the usage of the underutilized patios. It would also help to deal with short-term smart contracts for space usage and to make transactions through the platform. Incentivizing participation through utility tokens it would also help to enhance the community and build new relations.

Setting up Hidden paradise.

Hidden paradise is a platform to explore the maximum potential of the courtyard in every block for communal activities. The setup of the blockchain will be carried out by a fund collected from the sponsors who will in return get priority access for three months to conduct activities on all certified spaces for them to advertise their business.

Residents of the particular blocks can register themselves on the platform and get verified by having at least three peer verification or through the empadronamiento. Once they get verified they can take part in initiating ideas and the voting procedure for the ideas. 

Owners of the underutilized spaces have to certify their space from the DAO and once certified they can make their space available for hosting the activities. The activities proposed by the resident can be community-based activities like yoga classes, festival celebrations, etc, or even service-based activities like parking, storage, etc.

The owner being the person having the rights for the space shortlists 3 ideas from the list of needs provided by the residents. Out of the three, the residents get to vote for the idea they wish to be implemented. For each Vote the residents get 1 VoCoin. VoCoins are utility tokens for incentivizing public participation. Once the resident has 10 VoCoins, he can exchange them for the 1hr of free Space utilization.

Cocoin is used as a payment asset that can be generated by exchanging fiat money. The residents are supposed to pay for the activities through the Cocoins. Once the idea is finalized, a smart contract is made between the space owner and the service provider for the short duration of the activity.
To manage the funds a Gnosis Safe is created for the management of the funds that will be released to the owner of the space and service provider within the seven days after the duration of the smart contract on approval of all the 3 parties involved.

Further ahead as the residents keep on collecting to vocoins, they will also be able to use those coins for using the space for creating an activity for the residents and becoming a service provider, thus earning Cocoins.

Crypto Urbanomics Model

Blockchain survey
Blockchain characteristics

Blockchain parameters

Technical

Setting up MetaMask account.

Setting up Gnosis Safe.

Setting up DAO

‘Hidden Paradise’ is a project of IAAC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia developed in the Master in City & Technology 2021/22 by Students: Joseph Bou Saleh and Pushkar Runwal and Faculty: Lluisa Marsal